The pace of change in the modern day work place is getting faster. Technological, social, political and even demographic influences are accelerating the rate at which organisations and their employees need to react and adapt.
Whilst we have people with the ability to respond and adjust to the needs of the changing business environment, there are still many factors that cause even the most disciplined and devoted worker to stumble and even struggle.
It's highly likely your people will be dealing with one, some or even all of these problems of the modern day knowledge based work environment:
The problem with e mail is getting worse. Workers on average check their e mail 15 times a day as they receive over 120 e mails daily and then spend over 2.5 hours dealing with them. Rather than assisting them in their role, the huge volume of e mail is an unwelcome distraction and a huge cause of stress.
According to a Harvard Business Review study of 182 senior managers in a range of industries: 65% said meetings keep them from completing their own work. 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient. 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking. 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.
Unfortunately in organisations where employees may have more than one reporting relationship or need to interface with different people from different departments there will be a constant stream of potential distractions from multiple sources. This means many will struggle to focus on their priority work as they fight off the many interruptions causing a lack of productivity and no end of frustration and heartache.
Workers today are more stretched than they’ve ever been having to deal with multiple projects and a vast array of things that need to be done. The pressures of a “no mistake” culture mean many will put off deciding what to focus on for fear of getting it wrong. And so in the absence of making a decision, they make make a decision not to decide. As a result procrastination is rife and as well as affecting the organisations productivity, it eats away at the individuals self esteem.
Individuals often delude themselves (perhaps in an effort to impress others) that if they work on multiple projects at the same time then they are being productive. Unfortunately the research proves that multi-tasking lowers IQs by 15 points during cognitive tasks and decreases emotional intelligence and brain density over time. Less quality work is produced, more mistakes are made, and more money is lost (to the tune of $450 million globally according to one study).
In an ideal world, everyone would do their job properly. Things would get done on time with the minimum of fuss. Any problems would be identified quickly and dealt with quickly. However low levels of accountability and poor quality work mean the most diligent workers are often left clearing up the mess caused by others, often at a personal cost to themselves.
After spending too much time dealing with the problems created by others, wading through masses of e mail, attending too many poorly run meetings and being routinely distracted by trivia, many workers find deadlines loom far quicker than expected. The intensity of the effort required and the pressure employees find themselves under to meet these deadlines generates unnecessary stress and emotional strain.
With so much to get done to meet the many conflicting deadlines, many find there is just not enough time in the normal working day. This finds them either working late or routinely taking work to do at home. Additional stress, the emotional cost to their personal lives and the feeling of unfairness contribute to increasing dissatisfaction among overworked employees. The number of lawsuits by employees claiming unfair overtime is up 32% since 2008 according to USA Today.
Unfortunately many workers fear taking the simple step that would allow them to cut through relative trivia and unhelpful distractions and allow them to get on with their important tasks. That is saying “No” to the many conflicting demands. It is the fear of a career limiting move or the risk of alienating themselves from colleagues. Either way workers are felt obliged to add additional burdens to their already heavy workload causing additional stress and feeling out of control.
The most productive professionals in a wide range of industries fulfilling important roles at every level stand out from their less effective peers because they regularly display these high performance work behaviours:
Your people claim they’re too busy to attend, even though they desperately need to training to make their lives easier. If the training is about how they can get more done in less time they are probably not even aware of the irony of that!
If they do turn up, they’re a demanding and sometimes difficult audience who don’t want academic based theories that look good in the text books but are difficult to implement. They also want a strong and confident instructor to guide their thinking, not someone who’ll buckle under the robust, real world challenges your people will throw at them.
Too often training done by a professional “trainer” with shallow and superficial understanding of relevant knowledge beyond the session curriculum can’t help with the wide range of relevant challenges your people have to face. This means many busy people find such training a complete waste of time.
When they leave the training room, that’s probably the last time they’ll look at their notes (Research shows less than 12% of learners apply the skills from training to their job.) Training like this has little if any ROI because the participants are not guided on how to apply and benefit from what they’ve learned.
Your people are tired with “Death by Powerpoint”sessions delivered by uninspiring instructors who turn away from the audience to face the screen and use their slides as a script. Faced with too many of these sessions, your people will give up on any training they’re offered because they’ll think all training is like that. (Sadly, it’s a rare individual who can light up a training room and engage an audience).
It's a sad fact of L&D life that even though you haven't delivered the training and you arranged it in good faith, your people will blame you for it not working.
"I was so impressed with the format that I told our HR department all training should be done this way."
Maria L'Episcopo, Project Manager, NATO Headquarters
"I have applied your strategies for dealing with e mail and am already seeing efficiencies that are saving me a considerable amount of time."
Wim Annerel
Certified Personal & Business Coach (Belgium)
Listen To Wim's Full Testimonial
"This seminar was professionally delivered and contained many useful and practical strategies that will help me become more productive."
Ricky Dibble
Station Commander, Scottish Fire & Rescue
Listen To Ricky's Full Testimonial
"I was both stimulated and challenged by the content and am already seeing the results of changing my behaviours."
Lee Webster
EMEA Business Manger, MFS Investment
Listen To Lee's Full Testimonial
"I was very impressed by his ability to gain and hold the attention of such a demanding audience."
Frédéric André
Mekitapen Learning & Development
"I was so impressed with the format that I told our HR department all training should be done this way."
Maria L'Episcopo
Project Manager, NATO
Listen To Maria's Full Testimonial
"The Power of Focus seminar was engaging, at times entertaining and a valuable use of my time."
Kasia K
Engineer
Even the busiest professional can find a four hour slot in the most hectic of schedules (and those that can’t probably need the Power Of Focus more than they realise). Attend this practical workshop in the morning and begin applying the tools for even greater levels of productivity in the afternoon for IMMEDIATE benefit. This workshop is delivered using colourful, content rich flip charts drawn in real time to adapt to the specific needs of the audience.
This workshop has been designed with the latest developments in peripheral, flipped and accelerated learning in mind. A brain friendly interactive learning environment is created so you naturally absorb the information shared. This will make it long lasting in your memory and easier to apply and benefit from. It draws on the facilitators experience of developing accelerated learning programmes delivered to over 2 million young people.
During the four hour workshop you will be taken step by step through a proven framework to be able to take ANY productive habit of YOUR choosing and install it into your subconscious so it becomes AUTOMATIC. You can then choose which habits YOU want to install to meet the demands of YOUR workload.
Spread out over 30 -45 days after the workshop, you will be given the opportunity to attend four top up webinars. These will provide you with a further 103 productive behaviours for you to add into your Framework of Focus. These behaviours cover how to get more done by doing less, managing and dealing with email overload, harnessing your energy for maximum productivity and getting the most out of others. You can attend them broadcast live OR watch the replay at your convenience. This will allow you to steadily introduce new productive behaviours into your repertoire over a longer period of time.
You are in safe hands with Michael Tipper, a self-confessed productivity geek who has been developing people in the live delivery format for over 20 years. An experienced manager and leader in his own right, Michael will bring real world examples and stories to illustrate the points made during the Power of Focus. He also has the strength and courage to challenge “conventional”thinking around productivity and open up the door to the new productivity possibilities of the latest research in neuroscience and performance psychology.
"I cannot emphasise how much we enjoyed working with you and hope there are many opportunities to do so in the future. Thank you."
Graeme Wilkinson
Director Avanti Learning Consultancy Ltd
"I am delighted to say the response from our members has been overwhelming."
Paul Bridle
CEO Excellence Squared Academy
"Michael's session was the first time in a very long time that I’ve stayed in the room for an entire seminar."
Mark Jesty
EX-2 Toronto
LEAD FACILITATOR
THE POWER OF FOCUS WORKSHOP
Michael Tipper is the host of the Profit Productivity Podcast. A daily broadcast recounting his journey developing his own productivity and that of others too.
It is an enlightening, honest and frank account of how he has increased his ability to get more done yet still maintain balance in his life
He is the author of 7 books including “Finding An Hour A Day - How To Free Up An Extra 60 Minutes From Your Busy Day…Every Day”.
An award-winning international speaker, trainer, facilitator and coach, he has spent the last 20 years in the people development industry.
He has personally worked with over 100,000 people across 4 different continents and has written programmes delivered to over 2 million students and young people in the UK and Europe.
"Excellent feedback on the quality of Michael’s delivery and the value and relevance of his content"
Bernard Berkein
Effi-Drive Smart Telematics
In the 10 days before attending the live workshop, participants will watch this short 5 minute video to understand how to prepare effectively and get the most out of the valuable time they will be investing in their own productivity development.
After watching the welcome video, participants will be given the option to download resources to guide their preparation for the live workshop. This preparation is not mandatory and it doesn’t matter whether participants do it or not. The live workshop is designed so that either outcome informs the conduct of the live delivery.
This face to face experience with Michael Tipper will form the foundation for the development of new productive behaviours over the course of the Power Of Focus experience. It is interactive and highly engaging and delivered using colourful and content rich flip charts drawn in real time.
Participants will be provided with a full summary of the workshop contents for use as a valuable reference source after the event. It will contain full details of Michael’s signature Productivity Improvement Operating System together with the 12 fundamental productivity behaviours covering the realms of Action, Focus and Elite Performance.
The first webinar explores the principles and strategies necessary to sharpen the focus onto doing the most important things instead of doing EVERYTHING. It explains how to reduce overwhelm and leverage work choices to get the maximum results with the minimum of effort.
This groundbreaking webinar looks at the problems of an overloaded email inbox and presents practical solutions to reduce the burden of an excessive amount of e mail traffic. It looks at a range of solutions to minimise the amount of e mail read and lessen the distracting influence email has. It also shows you how to help others consume your e mail more efficiently and effectively so email from you is more likely to be actioned by others.
This popular webinar looks at how we can get into a flow state so our work becomes effortless. It also looks at what we can do to maximise the energy we have and harness it most effectively to bring more of ourselves to our work when we most need it. Simple, yet extremely powerful.
No man (or woman) is an island and the workplace requires us to interface with others more than ever. Being able to create good relationships with those you work with and develop their intention to help you when you need it is a key skill to master to help you be even more productive. In this webinar you are shown how to effectively leverage the energy of others in a way that has them WANT to do things for you.
To help you, the coordinator of the activities to put on The Power Of Focus Workshop for the people in your organisation, you will also get a series of pre-written emails to promote the workshop and the follow on webinars. In addition you’ll also receive communications resources to help promote the workshop to your colleagues who attend and their line management. It is literally a plug and play system for you. Click Here to see the resources you’ll get.
Michael Tipper, ProfitProductivity.com
I'm 100% confident that you are going to be completely satisfied with the quality of the Power Of Focus Experience and the benefits it can bring to the people in your organisation. If you're unhappy for any reason then I'll refund your investment in full within 7 days.
A. It would be a bold claim to say everyone would benefit from improving their productivity. Anyone involved in knowledge work and the need to interact with others will find the experience invaluable. However, this workshop is ideally suited for busy people who are key influencers in your organisation.
A. The Power Of Focus experience is designed to give busy people the opportunity and flexibility to fit professional development into their schedules without affecting their current momentum. Each webinar will have up to 2 additional replay broadcast options to give participants the choice of when to listen in and benefit from the additional training.
A. The Power Of Focus Live Workshop is a four hour session (including a coffee break) that runs from 9.00am-1.00pm. We have found that morning sessions yield the best results as participants can begin applying what they’ve learnt in the afternoon. Afternoon sessions have a higher incidence of no shows as people invariably get “caught up” with work issues that emerge during the morning.
A. The live workshop is best suited for audiences of up to 18 to allow time for individual questions to be addressed and for appropriate levels of tutor interaction and feedback during the session. However the follow on webinar series can accommodate up to 100 people per broadcast supporting the delegates from up to five live workshops at a time.
A. When you book a Power Of Focus Workshop, you will be sent a comprehensive list of what is required. However in summary, all that is needed is a large training room that can seat three tables of 6 people (assuming the maximum of 18 people are attending) and 2 sturdy flip chart easels and pads. Michael will bring everything else that is needed.
PROJECT MANAGER
NATO HEADQUARTERS BRUSSELS
Listen To Maria's Power Of Focus Testimonial
“My name is Maria L’Episcopo and I attended Michael Tipper’s Power Of Focus seminar when he came to Brussels recently. I work at the NATO headquarters in Brussels.
I decided to attend because I always found myself staying at work longer than I'd intended to. This was causing pressure for me at home, especially as I have a young baby and so it was important for me to make some changes in how I work.
I loved the format of the Power Of Focus seminar. Half a day of live, face to face contact with Michael meant I could fit it into my busy schedule. Having the follow on webinars spread over the four weeks after the live event drip fed really valuable information to me in bite-sized chunks making it easy to apply and benefit from.
I was so impressed with the format that I told our HR department all training should be done this way.
I am pleased to say I now feel much more focused and in control of my workload and am now regularly going home on time and still managing to stay on top of things.”
STATION COMMANDER
SCOTTISH FIRE & RESCUE SERVICE
Listen To Ricky's Power Of Focus Testimonial
"I attended your Power of Focus Seminar in Edinburgh recently and was really impressed by how you tied together relevant strands from conventional “time management”, performance psychology, neuroscience in a way that made complete sense to me.
I really liked your Productivity Improvement Operating System and that will allow me to take the behaviour shifts you recommend and implement them into my own working practices. Perhaps the biggest penny dropping moment for me from what you shared was helping me gain clarity on what my Main Thing is.
Overall I thought the Power oF Focus seminar was professionally delivered and contained many useful and practical strategies that will help me become more productive."
CERTIFIED PERSONAL & BUSINESS COACH (BELGIUM)
Listen To Wim's Power Of Focus Feedback
"I attended Michael's excellent Power of Focus Seminar in Brussels recently and I was also online for the series of supporting webinars that followed. There were two main things that stood out for me.
The first was the power of how Michael framed productive behaviours so they could be developed as long term habits. The second was the three powerful strategies Michael gave to reduce the massive number of things on my to do list down to just the important ones so I can stay focused and productive.
I have also applied Michael's strategies for dealing with email and I'm already seeing efficiencies that are saving me a considerable amount of time. Overall I have enjoyed the Power of Focus experience but more importantly I have benefitted from what I have applied."
BUSINESS MANAGER
EMEA REGION, MFS INVESTMENT
MANAGEMENT
Listen To Lee's Power Of Focus Testimonial
"After recently returning to work after having my second child, I felt the need to improve my productivity and so was delighted to attend Michael's recent Power of Focus Seminar in London. I found the seminar extremely enlightening. In particular the seminar helped me realise how much time I've been wasting by multi-tasking when I had previously always thought it was a useful way to approach work.
I was particularly impressed with Michael's tips on taming the e mail beast. My company has an extremely high volume of e mail traffic and a culture of quick response and I have implemented many of the strategies Michael recommended and they’ve been very helpful. After listening to him talk about the importance of the Main Thing, I realised I was not clear on what mine was and so I could see a huge impact of that on my productivity. I have been able to block out more of my time on important tasks and have educated my team on keeping me accountable for sticking with those blocks.
Overall I enjoyed the Power of Focus Seminar, was both stimulated and challenged by the content and am already seeing the results of changing my behaviours thanks to Michael."
ENGINEER
"Attending your Power Of Focus Seminar in Amsterdam recently was a huge eye opener for me. After listening to you I went back and applied just a handful of the many things you shared and already, I am much more focused and have created far more effective plans for the achievement of my goals.
Even after getting back to work, your suggestions made me aware of just how distracted and inefficient I had been despite putting tons of effort in. I can remember saying “Oh My God! This is Terrible” once I realised just how bad things were.
But having attended your Power of Focus Seminar I now have your Productivity Improvement Operating System (which I think is great by the way) to continually make small and manageable changes to ramp up my efficiency and effectiveness on a daily basis. And already I am seeing tangible improvements.
Overall I thought the Power of Focus seminar was engaging, at times entertaining and a valuable use of my time."
CEO EXCELLENCE SQUARED ACADEMY
"I have known Michael professionally for over 20 years and have always been impressed with his professionalism, passion, energy and enthusiasm as well as his in depth knowledge and understanding of his areas of expertise.
It was for those reasons I invited him to work with The Excellence Squared Academy to help our members deal with their most pressing problem - trying to stay focused in such a distracting and distracted world.
I was looking for a fresh approach to bring new ideas to a busy and demanding audience. Michael embraced the challenge, worked with us with new ideas and approaches and developed an outstanding live seminar and a series of supporting follow on webinars.
I am delighted to say the response from our members has been overwhelming. Not only did they find the approach we took convenient to their busy work lives, but they found Michael engaging, entertaining but more importantly, full of practical behaviours they could instantly apply.
The most telling metric for me has been the feedback I have personally received about how participants have gone on to apply and benefit from what Michael shared.
I can wholeheartedly recommend working with Michael."
DIRECTOR AVANTI LEARNING
CONSULTANCY LTD
"Michael, what a delight it was to host your outstanding Seminar: The Power of Focus to our audience of Excellence Squared Academy Members and guests in Edinburgh, yesterday.
The feedback was exceptional. The attendees loved not just the powerful and readily applicable learning points, but your energy, wholly appropriate humour and your encouraging and welcoming challenge and interaction.
From a logistic perspective, your pre event communication could not be bettered. I knew from your call to me, the passion you were going to have for delivering a quality work event to our demanding audience.
I cannot emphasise how much we enjoyed working with you and hope there are many opportunities to do so in the future. Thank you."
MEKITAPEN
TRANSFORMATION, LEARNING &
DEVELOPMENT
"Michael came and delivered his excellent Power of Focus Seminar to a select group of my clients in Paris recently. I was very impressed by his energy, enthusiasm and passion for his subject but also with his ability to gain and hold the attention of such a demanding audience.
It is extremely rare to see a subject matter expert deliver such a practical, valuable and engaging live seminar without the use of powerpoint. I was just as impressed with his ability to engage an audience and deliver valuable content in the follow up webinars.
His advice was backed up by research and experiential activities but more importantly, it was practical.
Already I have booked Michael to come back and work with more of my clients later this year."
EFFI-DRIVE SMART TELEMATICS
"I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of days with Michael Tipper recently when he delivered his Power of Focus Seminar to clients in Brussels and Amsterdam.
Comments from both groups were extremely positive with excellent feedback on the quality of Michael’s delivery and the value and relevance of his content.
As well as being very engaging, it is clear Michael walks his talk (as can be seen on his podcast) and clearly understands how to share his experiences and help others practically apply and benefit from his advice.
It was most refreshing to see just how engaging a presentation delivered just using colourful and well drawn flip charts can be."
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